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Michael Springborn
Mike Springborn
Assistant Professor
Department of Environmental Science & Policy
University of California
1 Shields Avenue
Davis, CA  95616
email

CV

Research Interests

Research Areas

Publications

Teaching

Useful Economics & Environment Links

Prospective Students


Research Interests
The word cloud above reveals the most common concepts I've emphasized to date (based on the abstract and introduction text of all of my academic papers).  I work in the areas of resource and environmental economics.  I’m interested in problems involving decision-making under uncertainty, learning, adaptive management and environmental risk.  The methods I use include econometrics with Bayesian inference, Bayesian learning processes, dynamic control and general equilibrium models. Recent and current projects include: combined bioeconomic and quantitative genetic models for salmon biodiversity management; estimating and mitigating invasive species risk from international trade; adaptive management of environmental risk; econometrics for decision-making applied to screening of potentially hazardous imports; analysis of greenhouse gas control policies under uncertainty; voluntary policies for stormwater pollution control; and a spatial analysis of voluntary participation in a green building certification program (USGBC/LEED).  

zebra mussel USFWS
Invasive zebra mussels, credit: USFWS

     yellow star thistle
Invasive yellow star thistle, credit USDA/Greb

Chinook Salmon Painting by Ralph Martens
Chinook Salmon painting, Ralph Martens
Research Areas

Invasive species and trade:

The value of nonindigenous species risk assessment in international trade (with Reuben Keller and Christina Romagosa; recently published in Ecological Economics.)          --> See discussion of this article on Time.com: The Benefits of Stopping Invasive Species Before They Invade, by Bryan Walsh.
     
"Closing the gap between risk estimation and decision-making: efficient management of trade-related invasive species risk" (with Robert Lieli; forthcoming in The Review of Economics and Statistics.)

"Bioeconomic forecasting of invasive species by ecological syndrome" (with John Schmidt and John Drake; forthcoming in Ecosphere).

Sanitary and phytosanitary trade policy to avoid invasive forest pests -- NCEAS working group

"Bayesian adaptive management with optimal learning" (contact for working paper)

Climate change policy under economic uncertainty:


"Emissions targets and the real business cycle" (with Carolyn Fischer; rececently published in Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, a general equilibrium, real business cycle analysis of greenhouse gas control instruments under uncertainty)

Integrated management of species and their habitat for adaptive capacity:

"How to get there from here: Ecological and economic dynamics of ecosystem service provision" (with Jim Sanchirico; recently published in  Environmental and Resource Economics; a production function approach to valuing ecosystem services using fish in a coral reef-mangrove-seagrass complex as the model system).

"Salmon biocomplexity and environmental change" (joint project with Marissa Baskett and other collaborators; a combined bioeconomic and quantitative genetic model for managing salmon biocomplexity)

Publications

Closing the gap between risk estimation and decision-making: efficient management of trade-related invasive species risk
(with Robert Lieli) The Review of Economics and Statistics, 2013, 95:2, 632–645.

Bioeconomic forecasting of invasive species by ecological syndrome (with John Schmidt and John Drake) Ecosphere, forthcoming.

Sediment-adsorbed total mercury flux through Yolo Bypass, the primary floodway and wetland in the Sacramento Valley, California (with Michael Bliss Singer and Thomas Dunne) Science of the Total Environment, forthcoming.

The value of nonindigenous species risk assessment in international trade (with Reuben Keller and Christina Romagosa) Ecological Economics 70(11), 2011, 2145-2153.

Long-term correlations in European socioeonomic conditions create a bias towards conclusion that an invasion debt occurs (Letter to the Editor, with Reuben Keller)  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108(25 E220), 2011.

Emissions targets and the real business cycle (with Carolyn Fischer) Journal of Environmental Economics and Management  62(3), 2011, 352-366.

Adaptive human behavior in epidemiological models. (with Eli Fenichel and others)  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(15), 2011, 6306-6311.

How to Get There From Here: Ecological and Economic Dynamics of Ecosystem Service Provision. (with James N. Sanchirico)  Environmental and Resource Economics, 48(2), 2011, 243-267.

Optimal random exploration for trade-related non-indigenous species risk. (with Christopher J. Costello, and Peyton Ferrier) in Bioinvasions and Globalization: Ecology, Economics, Management, and Policy, ed. C. Perrings, H. Mooney and M. Williamson, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010.

Unintended biological invasions: Does risk vary by trading partner?  (with Christopher J. Costello, Carol McAusland, and Andy Solow)  Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 54(3), 2007, 262-276.

Policy and risk processes of trade-related biological invasions.  (with Christopher Costello and Carol McAusland)  U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economics Research Report, CCR-41, June 2008.

bookhead
Bookhead (Shields Library, UCD), credit: Neustrom



Teaching

Undergraduate:

ESP 162: Environmental Policy (Winter 2013)

ESP 198/165: Climate Policy (Spring 2013)

See this expandable mind map for an overview of the course (adapted from a flow chart by Robert Stavins).  In the Flash viewer you can click on the nodes to expand or contract; click and drag map around; and use scroll wheel to expand/contract the map.

economic analysis of environmental policy

Graduate:

ESP 212B: Environmental Policy Evaluation (Spring ‘10)

Prospective graduate students

I anticipate accepting graduate students through the graduate group in ecology (Environmental Policy Area of Emphasis) for the fall of 2011 and 2012.  When inquiring about graduate school at UC Davis, please include in your email a short description of your academic and professional background (including economic and ecology classes), your academic interests, and a couple of sentences on why you are interested in attending graduate school.  A solid quantitative background (economics, mathematics and/or statistics) is important.  

New for admissions in 2012: You may want to consider applying for support as a trainee in our new NSF IGERT in  Climate Change, Water and Society (CCWAS) which "is designed to provide a new generation of scientists with the disciplinary depth and the multidisciplinary breadth to address effects of climate change on water resources, including unification of hydrologic and climate science toward a more advanced understanding of hydroclimatology and better translation of science into action."

bikecircle
Personal

Other environmental initiatives in the family: specializing in green windows in Austin, The Soco Studio is my brother Zack's effort to bring energy efficient windows to Texas.